Ahhh, the day after auroras, waking up with the thought of “did that really happen?!?” Absolute awe. Now just to wait for the pics because if there aren’t pictures, it didn’t really happen right?!?
Both a bit overwhelmed and tired from a late night we got stuck into some good ol’ Finnish delicacies – well, the version from the local Kioski, heat n eat style from our kitchen with a snowy view…
Salmon soup, chicken & cheese soup and meatballs with mash… surprisingly tasty… or just really damn hungry…
Having not heard back from our 2 star Airbnb host, we had hoped to stay in our accommodation for a few hours longer to avoid the -17 outside, but low and behold Annikki (made that up) arrived to clean so time to leg it, out in -17 at noon with no where to go, luckily the Finnish get the whole drink coffee and veg thing. Their coffee houses are funky as hell and the coffee ain’t too bad either.
So having to wait it out til 3.30pm for our bus to Saariselka, after the coffee house got bored of us we dragged suitcases and all to the local shopping centre where our eyes did not deceive us, a rock n roll Mexican restaurant – never knew those two things belonged together until now! Cue gin… and a trip to supermarket to stock up on snacks for the road trip… and then some more gin… my first taste of the national Finnish drink Lonkero, which just happens to be Gin… knew I belonged here.. and you can buy it in the supermarket aisle… triple points for Finland!!
And in another plus for Finland, their bottle shops are called Alko, for reals… this place has my heart!
So bus station bound with Google leading the way, how the hell people got around before Google maps in this weather without turning into icicles is beyond me, but we trudged, dragging suitcases through the snow to the Linja-Autoasema and after some interesting conversation with a local who thought we needed advice on how to live our best life – we were off to Saariselka. I guess we did look that bad and the dude thought we needed it…
So after a breakfast of microwaveable goodness, second breakfast of coffee, elevenses of gin and I guess a lunch of gin, it was time for random supermarket snacks for luncheon and afternoon tea – Thai Green Curry Pringles, something chocolate, another thing chocolate then this green sugary bundle of yum – still no idea what it was, just tasted like green according to Kyles…
The bus ride was like crossing the Mountains of Moria, snow blizzard outside and Saruman trying to bury us in snow.. luckily takeaway cans of gin took the edge off the fear… somehow on a road we couldn’t see, our frickin amazing bus driver got us to Saariselka, and what do we know, our accommodation is at the local pub where there’s a roaring fire and karaoke!!
No surprises, we took two minutes to drop bags at our room and head to the local. We settled in fireside for a dinner of salami sticks and potato chips while indulging in a supper of Lonkero, which I renamed Loki after my favourite Avenger and then somehow my arm was twisted into singing Karaoke… after a Wonderwall warm up, we struck a chord with Don’t Stop Believing then our final ballad of I Got You Babe… of course we are both amazing singers, we didn’t at all clear the bar, just enjoyed the wild applause from our audience…
Yeah nah. Bedtime.
Thursday 3rd January 2019.
Holly vs the world 